Woad has big-picture perspective in first full LPGA season
Beth Ann Nichols and Karen Stupples reflect on the maturity of Lottie Woad in her first full LPGA season and how it enables her success on the course.
Video Transcript
Lottie Wood, she had such an amazing part of this story last year- Mm-hmm as an amateur to earn her LPGA Tour card.
How would you assess the last 12 months of her career as a professional?
You know, it's such a hard thing to go from amateur golf to professional golf, but she made it so seamless.
And I think that's so impressive when you take a player that was literally at this time last year still playing amateur golf, still, you know, under the umbrella of Florida State University and English Golf, and, and not really thinking too much about let- maybe playing, you know, what her life would be like as a professional.
But I would say that everything that she did as an amateur, every shot that she played, every practice round that she took, sh- her- she was thinking about what those shots would mean if she was a professional, what, how that would translate.
And so she's the probably the most ready of a- any s- any player that I've seen come out, from amateur golf to professional.
It's so matter of fact.
And even watching her play now, it is She plays with a, with a maturity that, that even players that are, that are in their 30s struggle to ma- struggle to maintain.
I mean, she's very matter of fact about winning, losing, performance, how she's doing against everybody else, and that really is what gives her, her a bit of an edge.
Karen, you know, I was amazed after she, she lost at the Meijer.
She missed that short three-foot putt that would've won her the tournament.
And then the next few days later, just we're standing in the media room at, at the KPMG Women's PGA, and she's saying this great line of, you know, "If you'd have told me a year ago that I'd have two LPGA titles already under my belt, I would've bit, bit my hand off for it."
Yeah.
I mean, it was, it was so beautiful.
It just shows, you know, her, her big picture perspective.
She's viewing this as, as her rookie year, given the fact that, you know, she, she was playing a lot of tournaments for the first time, her first full season on the LPGA.
She just has such a, a, a beautifully mature mind, you know, a wise head- Yeah on her shoulders.
And so, you know, for her, even though she didn't, you know, do well at, at Hazeltine, I actually think maybe, and it, it might be good that she got home a little bit early, gets a little bit of extra rest before this beautif- this big stretch coming up.
And, you know, she's somebody that would've forgotten about that already.
That's kind of the beauty of Lottie Wood- that short memory.
Bethann, I feel like we have this conversation every single- Oh, no, I, I think- Oh, sorry.
Go, go ahead, Steps.
No, no, I, I, I was gonna say com- completely agree with, with Bethann on that because, most p- most times, I mean, you guys know.
You're, you, you, you interview players all the time.
I mean, if you imagine going up to somebody after they've just missed a really short putt and then asking them about it the next week, you, you're normally gonna get somebody who's a bit bristly, right?
I mean, you've seen it time, week in, week out.
But she was so chill about it.
And I was really nervous, and I'm good friends with Lottie, and I was nervous about how do I approach her?
What do I say?
But she was so chill.
I'm, "Okay, this, this is a, this is a really good thing."
Probably has the comfort of knowing she's probably gonna win a couple, more times on the LPGA before her career is done- since it's certainly starting at this point
